View full size(Photo provided by Flint Police)Police are searching for Mark A. Jones, Jr., a 16-year-old escapee from Genesee Valley Juvenile Detention Center who is accused of killing a 73-year-old woman in 2010.

Jones, at 14, was accused of fatally shooting Merlyne Wray, 73,
after breaking into her home on Leland Street near Fenton and Atherton roads on Nov. 17,
2010.

Less than a month earlier, he pleaded no contest to breaking into the apartment of an
80-year-old Burton man. The victim in that case told the Flint Journal in 2010 that Jones somehow opened the door to his apartment, "nonchalantly" walked inside and asked to use his bathroom.

Jones was then arrested after allegedly trying to take the senior's phone.

A referee placed Jones at the Genesee Valley Regional Center
“because his parents failed to supervise him,” according to court
records. Less than two weeks later, Family Court
Judge John A. Gadola released Jones on probation to his mother.

Two weeks later, he was charged as an adult with open murder, felony
murder, armed robbery, carjacking, home invasion, carrying a concealed
weapon and felony firearm in Wray's slaying.

Awaiting trial, Jones has been held at the juvenile facility until this afternoon, when he escaped while being transported by Genesee Valley Regional Center guards to New Passages Psychological Services on Corunna Road for therapy, police said.

Police at first
searched the area of Bradley Avenue and Gibson Street. Flint Police Chief Alvern Lock later said
officers were looking for Jones all over the city.

Employees
at the detention center would not provide any further details on the
escape and director of detention center Fred Woelmer couldn't be
reached.

Wray’s daughter, Cathy Klutts of Burton said after her mother's slaying in 2010: "I don’t know why they ever let him out. I hope they will not let him out now."

Reached Friday by phone, Klutts was fuming over Jones' escape.

"I just can't understand how he got out," Klutts said. "It just sucks. It just doesn't make any sense"

She said it adds to a year and a half of frustration in waiting for his trial.

"I want to know why he got out," she said. "This case has gone on two years
and now he's out. Who knows if they get him or not. It all sucks."

Anyone with information on Jones' whereabouts is asked to call Flint Police at 810-237-6800.